A Port Coquitlam woman is reminding dog owners to keep their pets on a leash after her cat was attacked in the backyard of her Morrison Street home last week.
Gale Nadeau said she was working in her garden when she heard the sound of her cat frantically meowing in her backyard. She ran to the yard just in time to see the tail of what she believes was a German shepherd disappear into the bushes behind her home.
“I’m guessing the dog got a face full of claws,” she told The Tri-City News this week. “I could hear the dog screaming and I could hear the cat screaming… [The dog] took off in a hurry.”
Still, Nadeau’s five-year-old cat Nya suffered a substantial injury, requiring stitches and a drain on the left side of its face.
One week and a $1,000-dollar vet bill later, Nadeau said her feline is feeling a lot better.
“She is on the mend,” she said. “She has to go back in on Saturday to get her stitches out. She’ll survive but she’ll have a scar.”
Nadeau’s home backs onto a trail that runs behind the Broadway Street industrial area between Thompson Park and the Mary Hill Bypass. She said it is common to see people walking their dogs in the area and many do not use a leash. Her backyard does not have a fence and animals will often wander into her yard for a visit.
The family recently adopted another cat, Stuka, a 12-week-old domestic short-hair, which Nadeau said has made her more anxious about people walking their dogs in the area off leash.
She also notes that there is a lot of wildlife on the trail, like bears and even a lynx, which she said could be dangerous in an encounter with an off-leash dog.
“It is not a harmless activity,” Nadeau said of people that walk their dogs without a leash. “You don’t know what they are chasing or whose yard they are going into.”
In an email to Nadeau, Davin Gable, Port Coquitlam’s bylaw enforcement and animal control officer, said he had taken note of the incident and would try and spend more time patrolling the area.
According to the city, dogs are only allowed to be off leash in the off-leash dog parks on Maple Street and on Shaughnessy Street. The owner of a dog that is not on a leash could receive a $150 fine ($100 if it is paid within 14 days).
“The majority of dog owners in Port Coquitlam are responsible and do follow the bylaws regarding leashing their pets,” he said. “However, we do have a number of chronic offenders of whom we need to target regarding these offences.”
